130 CONSERVATION OF GROUND WATER 



tinue pumping shallow water to prevent contamination of a 

 deeper aquifer, and also places where it may be advisable to 

 pump the deep aquifer to remove contaminated water and 

 prevent it from moving to areas where the water is still usable. 

 Finally, a major industrial use of the water is for cooling, and 

 for that purpose the saline ground water is usable and may be 

 preferable to municipal supplies that could be substituted. 

 Thus high mineral content is not a deterrent to some users of 

 the water. 



Baltimore, Aid. 59 Prior to the construction of a public 

 surface-water supply in 1808, the people in Baltimore ob- 

 tained their water from springs and shallow dug wells. The 

 first artesian wells were drilled in the Baltimore Harbor 

 district in 1853, and by 1860 there were nearly a hundred 

 flowing wells. By the latter part of the nineteenth century 

 wells were decreasing in yield, and there were reports of 

 salt-water contamination. The use of ground water in- 

 creased more or less progressively until 1940, but the locali- 

 ties of greatest pumpage shifted to areas along the Patapsco 

 estuary, and practically all the wells in the harbor district 

 were abandoned because of contamination by salt or acid 

 waters. Pumpage reached a total of about 47 million gallons 

 a day in 1940 and 1941 but dropped to about 34 million 

 late in 1942. This decrease was chiefly at the Sparrows Point 

 plant of Bethlehem Steel Company, which began using 

 treated sewage effluent for its increasing requirements and 

 as a substitute for the water formerly pumped from wells. 

 Since 1943 the annual pumpage in the Baltimore area has 

 probably changed only slightly from year to year. Practically 

 all the ground water pumped in the past 50 years has been 

 used by industries. 



59 References: Bennett, R. R., Ground Water in the Baltimore Area, Md., 

 Maryland Board of Nat. Res. Educ. Ser. 13, 1946, 15 pp. 

 Bennett, R. R., and R. R. Meyer, "Geology and Ground- 

 water Resources of the Baltimore Area, Maryland," U.S. 

 Geol. Survey rept., in preparation. 



